Little Green Footballs

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

On Sunday Charles Johnson proudly linked to an item on another weblog about an incident that was taking/had taken place on a BA plane due to fly from Heathrow to Boston (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=15304).

The incident in question was 'reported' (i.e. parroted) by Charles as involving the removal of "multiple passengers [...] from the plane by force." Charles' sole journalistic contribution was to find another weblog skeptical of the incident, and to look up the British Airways arrival schedule to verify how long the plane would be delayed by.

Way to go Charles. That certainly qualifies you for the Pulitzer, maybe even inclusion on Google News!

We at LGFWatch took a closer look at the incident. We called BA and were told that:

One passenger on the flight had requested permission to disembark

He had provided insufficient reason for this

Cabin staff (quite sensibly, we think) called Heathrow police

Heathrow police (who are always armed, unlike 'normal' police in Britain) boarded the plane and escorted the passenger in question as well as another passenger (presumably someone he was travelling with) off the plane

What happened next appears to be a little less clear: presumably all passengers were escorted off the plane while a security search was carried out before the plane was given permission to continue its journey. This would seem to be standard procedure given the circumstances BUT WE CAN'T VERIFY THIS, as BA had no information beyond the fact that the plane took off four hours behind schedule.

Next, we called the British police. They were able to tell us the following:

At around 17:00 BST Heathrow police were called to an incident on a BA flight from London to Boston.

Officers spoke to two men

No arrests were made

Now all of this points to a minor, if somewhat unusual, incident. It's understandable that other passengers were worried and annoyed by what had happened. What isn't understandable is why Charles Johnson and his lizard cronies immediately launch into 'kick the MSM' mode when they themselves are ignorant of the facts. Why not start with the assumption that the incident was TOO UNIMPORTANT to merit further attention by the MSM beyond perhaps an initial inquiry to BA and/or the police? But of course that wouldn't fit into the lizards' think-pattern. Far easier to blame the MSM for doing a lousy job/keeping the public in the dark, than to do some research yourself and follow up a story you made such a fuss about in the beginning.

God praise bloggers, the scourge of the professional newsgathering industry...